Emerald Downs: Davos returns from long layoff in sprint feature
AUBURN, Wash. – Davos, whose promising career was waylaid by injuries, returns from a long layoff to headline Friday’s feature race at Emerald Downs, a $10,000 claimer for older horses at six furlongs. The seven-race card begins at 6:45 p.m. Pacific.
A homebred for Ron Crockett, president of Emerald Downs, Davos won his career debut at Golden Gate Fields in January 2008 and recorded a Beyer Speed Figure of 100 in a second-level allowance sprint at Santa Anita in 2009. He competed in a pair of graded stakes in Southern California later that year before the wheels fell off. In the ensuing four years, Davos has recorded just one victory, in an allowance race at Emerald in 2011, while being laid up a number of times. He will return from 14 months on the shelf to start Friday.
Penney loaded for bear
Trainer Jim Penney could have a field day Sunday with as many as 10 starters in Washington Cup XI, Emerald Downs’s showcase for statebreds. Penney is expected to have at least one starter in each of the six $50,000 stakes races, with his Jebrica the likely favorite in the Muckleshoot Tribal Classic for older horses at 1 1/16 miles.
Stryker Phd, runner-up in the Grade 3 Longacres Mile in his last start, and Until You, an impressive allowance winner at Emerald last weekend, also are expected for the Muckleshoot. But Penney could have then surrounded with three starters – Jebrica, a game fourth in the Longacres Mile in his last start; Kooky Saluki, and I Keep Saying.
Chu and You, unbeaten and essentially unchallenged in her first three starts, headlines the Northwest Farms Stakes for 2-year-old fillies, and Del Rio Harbor, a two-time stakes winner, will be the horse to beat in the Daily Racing Form Dennis Dodge Stakes for 2-year-old colts and geldings.
◗ Worldventurer, easy winner of the Emerald Downs Derby in his last start, has been turned out for the rest of the year, trainer Blaine Wright said. Worldventurer had been expected to compete Sunday in the Grade 3, $150,000 B.C. Derby at Hastings.